Rex Trulove
Currently, the way that Hollywood and others judge the popularity of movies is by how much the movie made at the box office. There are a number of difficulties with this, though it might seem to be a good indicator. For one thing, a lot of people don’t go to theaters. They might download the movie, buy the movie on a DVD, stream the movie, and so on. It means that to tell how popular a movie is can’t honestly be measured at the box office, especially in the short time-frame that is used.
A less formal but probably far more accurate measurement would be to simply ask people which movies they’ve seen. This has actually been done many times, all over the world. It doesn’t mean that the people liked the movie or would watch it again, but using the box office figures doesn’t tell that, either.
If ‘popularity’ is defined by the total number of people who have seen the movie, which is a reasonable way of measuring it, then the time-frame is no longer important.
Consider this point; using every measurement available, it is estimated that half of the world’s population has seen at least one James Bond movie. This is staggering, especially considering the number of people in the world who don’t have the means to see a James Bond movie, even if it is translated into their language. There are a huge number of poor people in the world, as well as children, who have never seen any movie.
Yet, the data does show that roughly half of the world’s population has watched at least one James Bond movie. This makes James Bond one of the most popular fictional characters of all time and it far surpasses the expectations of Ian Fleming when he wrote the James Bond stories.
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Have you ever seen a James Bond movie?
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Yes, I’ve seen one
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I’ve seen several
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I’ve seen most James Bond movies
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I’ve rewatched many James Bond movies
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I’ve never seen a James Bond movie
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This was very interesting Rex. I don’t go by popularity when choosing the movies I watch.
I don’t either. If a movie sounds interesting, I’ll watch it. It is as simple as that. I also don’t go to movies based on the awards it has won. Many of the movies that have been chosen as “best picture” have been dull and boring to me.
I am one of those people who usually doesn’t go to movie theaters, though, even though one of my very first jobs was as an usher in a theater. The last time I went to a theater, it was to watch Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, right after that movie was released. That was 1983, 35 years ago.